Monday, November 28, 2011

Slippery Semantics Disguise the Real Power Dynamic

By coincidence, the next item I happened to read on the 'net was a column by Peter Worthington. It concludes with an observation made in 1899 by Winston Churchill:

The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until Islam has ceased to be a great power...

For all those who think the conference is a sign of progress, realize this: being "empowered" (to be the best Muslima you can possibly be) is definitely not the same as having power. And that's unlikely to change as long as sharia is heeded. (Might we call those who quibble about the difference between being "empowered" and having power anti-semanticists?)